From July 13 through 19, this post includes writing stimuli and optional writing prompts. It’s designed for writers to complete within minutes. There are photographs and video. Choose a stimulus and play the video, or engage a photo for one minute (click on photo to enlarge). The intent is to engage your creative mind.

Each stimulus is followed by four incomplete sentence beginnings and endings. You writing does not have to pertain to your chosen stimulus but some prompts do include a possible connection. Write for at least one minute but no more than five. Either free write to your liking, or embrace constraint by using the beginning and ending prompts. In constraint, combine any beginning with any ending. These can be a single sentence or multiple paragraphs. Feel free to massage and combine prompts to the liking of your radical self!

My neighbors are speaking in Korean, and Cantonese, and Hindi, and English and motorcycle, and honking cabs, as Lexington Avenue sidewalks sigh under the pining humidity. And then there was the salt shaker.

One of my student’s gave me this letter a few days before her graduation this past May. I read it often and wanted to post it here while I’m traveling. I didn’t want to lose it:

“…I know how you feel because I have also lost someone very close to my heart: my dad. I know it’s not entirely the same but the pain hurts just as much. Over time, if feels like you just get used to it. However, it is important to always keep your mind and heart open. Do not shy away from new experiences. There is still a life that has yet to be fulfilled. You are like a second mom to me, and I can’t thank you enough for all you have done. I’m going to miss you very much, but I will always carry your wisdom with me.”

Love, T.

(She included a poem by Karen Owusu.)

Note 2 Self

You must learn to carry yourself gently You must learn to love yourself. You must learn to be bold. You must always remember that you are enough. You are beautiful. You are different. You are not a fragment a burnt flower. You must water your flowers. You must learn from your roots. You must learn to blossom beautifully. You must learn to create space. Make room in your heart for yourself.

I’m not Jewish, but I find holding on to traditions/rituals comforting. I noticed that some white people find comfort in Japanese/Asian rituals. Perhaps it’s a way of associating death as a foreign concept. I don’t know.

I look for answers on Google for where my Lover could possibly be. Sometimes Google’s not dependable.

Except one article in the NYT mentioned a study on complicated grief:

when patients with complicated grief looked at pictures of their loved ones, the nucleus accumbens — the part of the brain associated with rewards or longing — lighted up. It showed significantly less activity in people who experienced more normal patterns of grieving.

“It’s as if the brain were saying, ‘Yes I’m anticipating seeing this person’ and yet ‘I am not getting to see this person,’ ” Dr. O’Connor said. “The mismatch is very painful.”